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May 31, 2025 - Viva & Barnes
52:35
A Soldier's Journey Home: Sergeant First Class New Home Reveal LIVE!
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Time Text
Okay.
Now, let's see here.
It should be working now.
Let's go back.
And I'll explain what's happening to everybody in a second when I see my punim in the screen.
Am I connected to the internet?
Yep.
Before I explain what's going on, let's make sure that we are...
Why is Rumble not up?
Rumble.
Go over here.
Go to my content.
Live.
Okay.
So I don't see me here.
Live streaming.
Soldier's Journey Home.
I hear me.
I hear me.
There we go.
Okay, good.
Put on pause now.
I hear myself.
Put on pause.
Stop it.
There we go.
Okay, so we're live.
Just to explain everything that's going on, the context.
Audio's going to be terrible because I'm on my computer.
Borrowing the Wi-Fi from David Mathis' new home in Georgia.
A Soldier's Journey Home is a charitable, or not charitable, it's an organization, a 501c3, that builds a home for a disabled veteran.
Specially tailored to their needs.
A forever home, no mortgage, built from the foundation up in two weeks.
And I can't show the reveal from the inside because they're saving it for the big reveal.
But that's what A Soldier's Journey Home does.
A member of our locals community, Ginger Ninja, who also has a channel on Rumble, is a carpenter and participates in the build.
He's been doing it every year for the last 10 years, I think.
Ginger around here.
It's an amazing thing.
They lay the foundation, and within two weeks, they get a team of volunteers, like 100 and some odd people, I think maybe 200, who come up and work, not 24 /7, but 12 hours a day, plus hours a day, building a home, which is specially detailed, accommodated to meet the disabled veterans' needs.
This year, it's double amputee David Mathis, Sergeant First Class, Special Sergeant First Class.
David Mathis, double APT below the knees.
I met him yesterday, and we talked for a long time, actually.
He told me the whole story and more.
Life story is beyond imagination.
And, well, hold on a second.
How did I spell it, Sergeant?
How did I spell it?
Did I put an A in there?
Oh, for goodness sake.
Correct.
All of the titles.
Edit.
Edit.
Hold on, I'll go edit this everywhere here.
Can I do it from the main rumble edit?
Here we go.
Well, that explains why it was underlined.
Okay, save changes.
Let's go here.
Edit on X. And so what I'm going to do is they're having the ceremony, which should start two minutes ago.
And it's going to be their feed.
Oh, there you go.
That's it right there.
In fact, you can see me inside the garage.
Hold on.
Look at this.
Look.
Oh, yeah.
You can see me.
I'm the guy hunched over sitting on the HVAC right behind that lady right now.
When she moves out of the way, you're going to see me.
Let me go finish correcting the typo.
Alright, done.
And one more in vivabarneslaw.locals.com.
And so that's it.
I've been down here since we left Wednesday.
I took my kid.
And we did part of the drive Wednesday.
Then Thursday we got here.
It's been Thursday, Friday.
Today's Saturday.
We head back home tonight.
That's me and the salmon right there.
I'll see how long the delay is.
I'll wait at the camera, which is right there.
Now look, you'll see the delay.
There we go.
That's me pointing it, and there I am waving it.
Okay, I can see me in the past.
And so this is it.
This is what you're going to see now.
It's not going to be a high-octane Viva Fry rant of a stream.
It's going to be the amazing evidence of what community can do to tangibly, materially, and indescribably levels unknown change a man's life.
So that's it.
Thank you.
Okay.
Now I'm gonna go see where my kid is.
He's somewhere here.
So I'm just gonna take my face out, leave my computer running, and then it's gonna be their stream.
So people, share the link around.
I'll go blast it around.
I don't know if...
Okay, so I'm going to end this.
I'm going to not end this.
I'm going to back myself out, enjoy the stream, share it around, and that is what A Soldier's Journey Home does.
The link to their organization is in the description.
If you want to donate, they require donations, obviously, because they buy the raw materials for the house built, and everybody else volunteers.
Last night, we had a crawdad at dinner, which was delicious.
And the funniest thing was we're in the parking lot and we had just watched them cook like three, four hundred pounds of crawfish in this big bucket.
And as we're walking around afterwards, my kid sees a crawfish walking across the parking lot like claws up in the air.
And so we it was too late to cook that one.
So we release it into a nearby creek and we'll see.
I don't think it's going to live.
Okay, so I'm going to back out now so that This garage might get a little busy and noisy.
Well, let me see what's going on in the chat.
Okay, we got Vivo.
We spell rank, Sergeant.
I corrected it, everybody.
Let me go refresh this.
I'll say it's the Canadian spelling.
If I refresh over here, is it going to...
Why doesn't it correct it?
Okay, here we go.
Surgeon.
That doesn't look right.
And then let's go to locals, and I'll correct it here as well.
I'm going to blame everybody who didn't warn me about that typo before we went live.
Ginger Ninja, I'm looking at you.
I'm joking.
And we've corrected it everywhere.
Okay.
Share the link around, people.
And we're going to witness awesomeness at this event.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
Well, good morning.
Good morning.
Today we have the honor of presenting this beautiful home to retired Army Sergeant First Class David Mathis, his wife Angela, their son Deshawn, and daughter Amari.
My name is Sharon Holland.
I'm the Communications Director and a member of the Board of Directors for a Soldier's Journey Home, and I'm proud to serve as the emcee for today's event.
It's my great pleasure to be here today representing the more than 120 volunteers from roughly 23 states who've given up their time away from family and work this year.
To help give Sergeant Mathis his forever home.
To be honest, it was a little touch and go over the past two weeks, but despite Mother Nature's best efforts to throw us off schedule, we made it.
This home has come together because of the dedication and unwavering commitment of the incredible men and women who are here each day in the heat, in the rain, in the mud, and because of the outstanding support of this local community, along with so many others from across the country.
To each and every one of you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
At this time, we would like to ask anyone seated to please rise as you're able for the presentation of the colors by the Evans High School Junior ROTC Color Guard under the command of Major Michael Diversa and Sergeant Major Doug Hedgie, both United States Army Retired, and then remain standing for the national anthem sung by retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Bruce from Quest Church in Grovetown, and the invocation also delivered by Lieutenant Colonel Bruce.
Oh, say can you see By the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed At the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars Through the perilous fight We're
so gallantly streaming.
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-sprangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
If you could all bow your head in prayer with me.
Dear Lord.
My Lord, Heavenly Father, we'd just like to thank you for this glorious day, Lord.
We know that you made it, and therefore it is a good day.
Right now, we'd like to honor the Mathis family, Soldiers Journey Home, for coming together in unity to honor this service member, this soldier, this family, for their sacrifice over the years, Lord God.
We'd just like to thank you for everything you've done, everything you're going to do, and everything that you are doing currently.
Lord, right now we ask that you would just continue to allow this service member and this community to thrive together.
We ask that all the dedicated years of service is also followed by years and years of support from the community and collaboration.
These and other things we ask in Jesus' name and for his sake.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a round of applause for the Evans High School Junior ROTC Color Guard and Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Bush.
Well, again, good morning.
On behalf of the Soldiers Journey Home, I want to thank you all for being here today and everybody watching out in livestream land.
David, Angela, Deshawn, Amari, welcome home.
We're honored to have with us today a number of members of the Mathis family, including David's mother, Mrs. Fanny Mathis, his father, David Mathis Sr., and his brother, Larry Mathis.
Your presence here today reminds us that this home is not just for one person, it's for a family, and it's a celebration of love, strength, and sacrifice that extends across generations.
Thank you for being here.
We're also extremely pleased to have with us Mr. Andrew McClure from the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation and Mr. Tom Gillen from New York.
Thank you both for being here.
Now before we get started, we want to take a moment to recognize all of the active duty service members, retirees, Guard and Reserve, veterans, and first responders past and present here today.
Would you all either please stand or raise a hand to be recognized?
Without these brave individuals, we could not have the freedom, safety, and security that we do today.
We owe you all and your families a great debt of gratitude.
Thank you for your service, sacrifices, and dedication to our country.
At A Soldier's Journey Home, our mission is simple, but deeply meaningful.
Identify a deserving veteran, bring together a dedicated team of volunteers, and build a forever home, start to finish, in just two weeks.
This year, we've been truly honored by the extraordinary support from the Evans, Grovetown, Augusta, and surrounding communities.
Your generosity, hospitality, and spirit of service have played a vital role in making this dream a reality.
Amaro volunteers are several Soldiers Journey Home team members who call this area home.
Their local insight, logistical expertise, and months of preparation laid the foundation for the successful build long before the first wall was raised.
We'd especially like to recognize Mr. Chris Ganther, our Vice President, a lifelong Columbia County resident and proud member of the Columbia County Fire Department.
Chris's deep community ties and tireless commitment were instrumental to this build.
Chris, thank you.
I'd like to now ask Brian Fitzpatrick, the President of A Soldier's Journey Home, to come to the podium.
Before we recognize incredible sponsors who made this build possible, I'd like to take just a minute to reflect on what we've accomplished here together.
Every nail, every beam, every hour poured into this home is a reflection of the respect that the entire Soldiers Journey Home team has for Sergeant Mathis' family.
This isn't just a house.
It's a symbol of gratitude from a nation that will never forget your sacrifice.
Shortly after our build last year in Louisiana, we were looking for our 2025 recipient, specifically in Georgia.
We turned to our friend Karen Hetherington and Susan Rocco from Semper Fi Fund for assistance, and that led to her, led here to David.
Our many thanks to them and to the Semper Fi Foundation.
First and foremost, this build would not be possible without the generous support of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Our very sincere thanks to Frank Siller and the Tunnel to Towers team.
Represented here today is Andrew McClure, their continued support for A Soldier's Journey Home.
We'd also like to express our deepest thanks to Mr. Tom Gillen, who is here with us today, as well as the Home Depot Foundation, for their support of this build through Tunnel to Towers.
There are so many people to thank for their incredible support of this year's build.
The list is long, but we want to recognize them all, so please bear with me.
KCK Foundation.
United Rentals.
Where are they?
Sonya, thank you so much.
Amazing.
And Mr. Jeff Carson.
Where are you, buddy?
Thank you.
Cisco Corporation.
They donated all the food for us that we ate over the two weeks.
Kenco Corporation and Mr. Alex Edward and Mr. Wade McKinney were representing them here today.
Mr. McKinney, Alex.
Mr. Raymond Delaboyce of Mitsubishi Electric Heating and Air Conditioning, who continue to support us after years.
Mr. Ted Barrow.
Hardwood Floors and more.
Construction, Southern Power Products, Generac, Columbus Fire Foundation, Reed Ice, Heritage South Farms, Newsome Shear House, Garnett Southern, Levittown Fire Department, Operation Wounded Warrior, Nassau County Firefighter Wounded Warrior, Motorcycle Mayhem Radio, Lions Cove, Triple M Fuel, Brumley Portable Toilets, Brumley Sanitary Sewer and Drain Service, Frost Heating and Cooling.
Paul McCoy and Revolution Roofing, renovations of Murray, Kentucky, Platinum Concrete Coatings, City Electric Supply, and Stewart Plumbing.
We have Bel Air Building Supply, Brothers Concrete, Ms. Grace Barbie from the Pro Desk at Home Depot.
She was amazing.
Mr. Mike.
Oh, there she is!
Thank you so much.
Deputy Commissioner Glenn Kennedy, you here sir?
Thank you very much for the support.
Absolutely amazing.
Deputy County Administrator Matt Sherlock, we have him here.
Columbia Board of Commissioners, Columbia County Fire Department, you guys were amazing in helping us.
Ms. Renee Jenkins and the Fairfield in-suites, Town Place Suites and in Grovetown.
Anybody from there?
Thank you.
John Hersey High School, Firehouse Coffee, Harry's Sauce Shop and Equipment Rental, Beam Site Prep, who are graciously donating the asphalt driveway, which will be expected next week.
A special shout-out to all of the elders and sisters from the Church of Latter-day Saints on mission who came out every day the last three days to help with landscaping.
We really couldn't have got it done without you.
Thank you.
Here's a great one.
Elwin, Shane, Jody, Steven, Glenn, and Dylan.
The Kingsman Social Club.
They drove up from Louisiana and cooked for us last night and gave us lunch yesterday.
Guys, thank you for the support.
They said they're in every year.
Mr. Eddie Jones, where are you?
Came here to see a reveal and was on a machine for the past two days helping us out.
Thank you, sir.
And your family for coming.
At last, where's Mr. Monty?
Hey, buddy.
We always wind up walking out with neighbors, and he has been exceptional.
He's allowed us to use his property to park on.
He's been our safety meeting director for the past two weeks.
But we can't thank you for your generosity, sir.
Can't thank you enough.
So let's give him a round of applause, everybody.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Thanks, Brian.
Today we're really honored to welcome Mr. Andrew McClure, Senior Manager for Development at the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
These unwavering support makes these builds possible.
Tunnel to Towers' generosity and deep commitment to serving our nation's heroes is very inspiring, and we're deeply grateful for their continued support and for the lasting impact they make in the lives of deserving veterans and their families.
Please welcome Andrew McClure.
Thank you, Sharon.
Thank you, Fitz.
Thank you everybody for being here today.
This is a monumental experience to be involved in.
I'm just here a few short days.
The volunteerism is something to behold.
You mentioned the young women here who are on mission, who just happenstance happened to be here today in the area this past week and got involved.
That's a real inspiration for the next generation, so thank you very much.
And I remember all your names too, McAllister.
I know Ryan.
So Tunnel to Towers Foundation is 9 /11 born.
A lot of you are familiar with the foundation, some are not.
I'm going to go with the abridged version today.
Stephen Siller had a heroic Heroic run on September 11, 2001, through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, because it was closed to all but emergency vehicles, to the Twin Towers, where he lost his life that day, along with 342 fellow firefighters.
We pay homage to him every single day.
And when we started out, it was all about what you guys are doing, people helping other people who are in significant need.
Whether it was a burn victim, a family of a firefighter, a first responder who may have had financial problems.
We didn't have a real mission.
It was just people helping other people in need.
While we're here on Earth, let us do good.
That has turned into building smart homes for catastrophically injured service members throughout this country.
We've done so to the tune of about 200.
We have a lot of fallen first responders that we need to take care of.
And when these families are in, they meet the criteria, they lose a loved one, put the uniform on, went to work, didn't make it home that night.
The foundation is going to step up, and if the need is there, we're going to pay off the mortgage held on their home.
And we've done that nearly 1,500 times.
And it's a lot of mortgages.
Now we've embarked on a new mission.
This country has upwards of 50,000 veterans on the streets, homeless, and one is too many.
So what we're doing is we're building facilities, not shelters, but transitional permanent living for the men and women who serve this country.
Proudly.
And have found themselves on the street, whether it's drug and alcohol addiction, family separation, PTSD counseling is needed.
All those counselors are there 24 /7 in our facilities.
And what we want to do is make a significant difference in their lives.
And we're never going to ask them to leave.
Ideally...
We couldn't do that without our donors, and the support has been tremendous.
And you mentioned Tom Gillen here today.
He's helped, and it's got to be about 10 homes now, I mean, throughout the country.
Do I have that number right?
I don't know, Tom, at least, right?
A little bit higher.
Lower.
Well, it's pretty long close.
He came all the way here from Long Island, and he's here every year at these builds.
Tunnel to Towers.
I think we've been involved in six builds now, and there's no reason to ever stop because it's the most wonderful day of the year.
And thanks for involving us.
We absolutely, you know, we cherish this.
We cherish the Mathis family.
David, Angela, Imari, Deshaun, welcome home.
Thank you.
Now I would like to ask Sergeant Mathis and the members of the Board of A Soldier's Journey Home to please come up to the podium.
All right, David, on behalf of the board and volunteers of A Soldier's Journey Home, it's our great pleasure to present you with the key to your new home.
All right, David, the microphone is yours.
First and foremost, I want to thank God for blessing me.
I want to thank my wife, my kids, and the rest of my family for supporting me throughout my recovery and continued recovery.
Like, I had a bad point at one point.
Like, I think just about everybody do.
But for them to stand by me, take care of me.
Make sure that I'm taken care of.
I just want to thank all of them.
And I want to thank the Soldiers Journey Home for this.
I want to thank all the volunteers because without this, without y 'all, this wouldn't have happened for me or my family.
So I want to thank you and God bless.
So this concludes the formal part of our ceremony.
I'd like to invite everyone to join David and Angela at the flagpole, which was donated by Mr. Dino Cesarini and Mr. Bob Gruber from Augusta, as we raise the American flag, which was also provided by Dino and Bob, for the first time at their new home.
After that, we'll all move around to the front of the house to do a ribbon cutting, and once the ribbon's cut, the Mathis family will enter their new home for the very first time.
We'll give them a few moments of privacy to take it all in on their own, and while they explore their new space, we invite you to join us for some refreshments located in the garage.
And once they've completed their tour of the home, you can walk through it for yourself to see it for yourself.
So from all of us at A Soldier's Journey Home, thank you for being here and thank you for supporting this mission.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Look at that attention.
Look at that.
Look at that.
All right, well, you're great.
All right.
All right.
All right, well, you're welcome.
All right.
Thank you.
One second.
Hold on.
Stop.
Screen.
We're going to see how long I can maintain internet connection.
Now, for anybody who's still...
Here we go.
Okay.
Just want to show everybody how beautiful this place is.
This is the outdoor section that everybody was looking at.
Beautiful American flags down the walkway coming in.
Now there's power lines running down there, but look how beautiful and lush that greenery is.
And we were in a pond just in...
Over there, down through the woods where we were catching bluegills, one after the other yesterday.
And let me see if I've lost my child.
I'm walking around holding my computer.
I think I'm still on the internet.
Let's see what's going on here.
Let's check it out in vivaparnsla.locals.com!
Until tomorrow, Pete.
Beautiful views.
Yeah, it is amazing.
The worms out here.
See where we're going to walk.
The worms are like...
they behave like snakes, the worms.
And they have a different texture to their...
A different texture to the body.
Like when you put a hook through them, they almost feel like they have leathery skin.
They were worms, by the way.
But we were looking for worms in the forest.
I've definitely lost my kid.
This is, well, you got the walkthrough already, so you've seen that.
It's beautiful.
The area is absolutely beautiful.
It reminds me of Texas, only green and cooler.
Not cooler as in more interesting, but cooler in terms of weather.
But it looks like the houses look just like Texas homes.
Ah, there the children are.
You're going into the woods.
He's going into the woods.
He's found another friend.
High five.
Boom shakalaka.
So that's it.
That was the soldier's journey home.
I'll see if I can get Mr. Mathis on the channel for an interview.
But we talked for a long time last night.
And it was amazing.
Check this out here.
I'll walk down the path until we lose internet.
And then I'll end the stream.
We got an eight and a half hour drive and I don't think the kid fully appreciates.
The mathematics of eight and a half hours from 12 o 'clock.
If we left now, drove straight, didn't fill up, didn't pull over to pee, we'd be home by 8.30.
Oh, okay, check that out.
Look at that back there.
It's beautiful.
Beautiful neighbor house down there, and that's it.
Thank you, Viva.
Says, be graceful.
Thank you, says Anita Smith.
Thank you all for being here.
The house is just incredible.
Right there.
I'll show you the porch.
The porch is what...
Is what self-quintessential Georgia.
Big porch, fan on the top.
Let me see if I walk around here.
Ginger Ninja, who knows his stuff from our locals community, was explaining that there's a generator propane tank so that if there's a power outage, that...
Okay, this would be here.
Check that out.
Look at this.
Look at that.
I am flipping along.
Look at these trees.
Look at the view.
There are these ponds.
I don't know what the deal is.
Someone who knows Georgia topography is going to tell me.
There are these ponds absolutely everywhere.
Tiny little ponds.
I'm certain they dig them up.
What I don't understand is how they don't...
So there's a pond in there that's a little bit higher than that one.
Then there's a pond over there that's a little lower.
They don't leak into each other.
I'm not going back in the house because my feet are dirty now.
Love those fans.
We got something in here.
Check this out.
We got the back door of the garage.
We got the back door of the garage.
And then this is the home.
I'm not going in.
Okay, fine.
I'm gonna go in.
Look how big this room is.
this is amazing it's like And then there's Mr. Mathis.
All of the volunteers who are now And now everybody's heading back and staying there.
I did the walkthrough before.
That's a beautiful...
But this is, well, we're not going to do a walkthrough now, but this is what's going on here.
Thank you.
Now, the question is, what's in the fridge?
Well, I'm not going to do that.
Alright, people, we're going to end, we're going to wind this down.
Sorry.
Alright, we are going to end the stream.
That is it.
A soldier's journey home.
Give everybody the link if you want to donate.
Volunteer.
Sign up for next year.
Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom.
There it is.
I'm live.
Hopefully.
Thank you very much.
Rumbletonian.
All right.
We're out of here.
I'm going to end the stream.
Thank you all for being here.
Share away and you know what to do.
See you tomorrow night, 6 o 'clock, people.
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